LONDON – Carrie Johnson could be summoned before British MPs to explain a secret gathering on the prime minister’s birthday that was not mentioned in the Sue Gray report.
The UK parliament’s privileges committee, which is investigating whether Boris Johnson knowingly misled the Commons over Party gate, is to consider asking his wife to give evidence.
Mrs Johnson (34) is alleged to have sent texts to a No 10 aide that indicate she hosted a gathering with male friends in their Downing Street flat during lockdown. Ms Gray was aware of the existence of the texts in January but the event was not investigated.
The June 19, 2020, gathering, on Mr Johnson’s 56th birthday, was attended by at least two of his wife’s friends, it has been claimed. Covid rules at the time prohibited indoor gatherings of two or more people, except for work purposes.
According to The Sunday Times newspaper, the aide sent Mrs Johnson a message saying her husband was on his way back to the Downing Street flat at 6.15pm.
It is understood that Mrs Johnson responded: “Great. I am already here with the gays,” an affectionate reference to close male friends. In a further ratcheting up of pressure on the prime minister, it was alleged that four officials told the gray inquiry they had heard Abba music being played by Mrs Johnson in the Downing Street flat on November 13, 2020, when two of her husband’s closest aides had quit.
A source close to the privileges committee said Mrs Johnson and other attendees may be asked to tell MPs what happened at the events.
“What they are deciding is whether the prime minister lied to parliament. To do that they have to go beyond the two elements of what he said,” the source added.
“The prime minister says he was given assurances that they complied with the rules. Who were those assurances from and what is the truth? The committee will want to speak to Sue Gray and maybe Carrie. It is up to them to investigate the alleged Abba party and the other possible party in the flat and to require whatever papers and witnesses they want.”
The source insisted the privileges committee had stronger powers than the gray inquiry to call witnesses and demand answers. Failure to do so – even by private citizens – could be held to be contempt of parliament.
The source described the latest allegations as potential “bombshells”, adding: “It blows apart the quality of the investigations by the Met Police and Sue Gray. It blows apart the suggestion that they co-operated all along and it blows apart the argument that the prime minister did not fib.”
The Labour Party last night called for the privileges committee to investigate the involvement of the prime minister and his wife at the gathering in his flat on the day of his birthday.
Downing Street has previously accepted that two events to mark Mr Johnson’s birthday took place on June 19 – one in the afternoon, for which he and his wife received a fixed penalty notice, and another with his siblings lawfully held outdoors in his garden.
No 10 dismissed in January the existence of a third event as “totally untrue”.
